Primary Robins Christmas Report
Primary Robins Christmas Report
It has been a brilliant term for Primary Robins and amazing to think that every week 6000 children at fifty schools from Hampshire to Newcastle have a thirty-minute singing lesson at no cost to the school.
In Lewisham, the Robins start with a physical warm-up followed by tongue twisters. Simple vocal exercises help with learning basic rhythms and pitches. Then they sing ‘The Breakfast Song’ – the children are always eager to sing about what they have eaten that morning – it ranges from toast with honey to chocolate cake!
They have developed different characters to explore the various parts of the voice, the chest voice is a big gruff monster, and the head voice is a very posh lady.
Many of our teachers are professional opera singers and it is wonderful for the children to hear their voices. Sometimes Jack Sandison’s very low bass voice has them giggling and when he sings falsetto this results in even more laughter.
In Durham, the Robins have been concentrating on breathing and pitching correctly. Here they have been singing seasonal songs like Here Comes the Sun and Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.
In Essex some of the younger Robins have been learning about different rhythms and can now create their own two bar rhythms in 4/4 time.
In Surrey they have been working on creating the perfect posture for singing and looking at the notation in the songbooks. All the KS2 children can now name and recognise quavers, crotchets and minims.
At all the Manchester schools the Robins have also been working on their song writing skills. Some have written new words to the song. My Favourite Things, my favourite of which is:
We all love painting with lots of the colours
Blue, red and golden and all of the others
Mix them together a rainbow begins
These are a few of my favourite things.
During the last few weeks of term, the Robins have been singing Christmas songs, including traditional carols like Silent Night and classics like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Wishing you a very Happy Christmas.
Annabel Larard – Primary Robins Project Leader